This invention relates to magnetic disk drives and more particularly, to a disk drive in which the motor is translated into engagement with the disk.
Recently, magnetic disk drives which write and read digital data from flexible magnetic disks have been extensively used. These are frequently referred to as "floppy" disks and "floppy disk drives." These drives have been extensively used for small, so-called microcomputer, systems, for word-processing applications, and the like.
In order to rotate the flexible magnetic disk in read/write relationship with a magnetic recording head, a rotatable spindle must engage the center of the disk and disengage the disk when the operation has been completed. Floppy disk drives typically force and hold the disk center onto a fixed rotatable spindle by use of a clamp which comes from the back side of the disk. Since the actual drive spindle is fixed from translating, the critical dimensions from the hub center and hub height with respect to the recording head are fixed. However, this approach requires that the disk cartridge have an opening through which the clamp contacts and moves the media. The typical floppy disk cartridge exposes certain areas of the disk recording surface to dust contamination, liquid spillage, fingerprints, and scratching.
Examples of floppy disk drives are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,990,111--Elliott, 3,678,481--Dalziel et al, 3,815,150--Stoddard et al, 4,125,883--Rolph, and 4,089,029--Castrodale et al.
It is an object of the present invention to engage the magnetic disk with both a drive motor and a recording head from the same side of the disk and through a common opening in the rigid disk cartridge. This allows the single opening in the cartridge to be closed by a slider or the like when the cartridge is not in the disk drive, thereby eliminating a potential source of communication.